10 of the most depressing posts from Mia Matsumiya’s Instagram

She's calling out her online harassers

Incredibly talented professional violinist Mia Matsumiya has set up an Instagram page specifically to post over 1000 images of messages she has received from “creeps, weirdos, and fetishists” over the past ten years, and it’s not for the faint of heart. The knowledge that some of these people populate our planet does not sit well with me at all.

The account called @perv_magnet is a great way to make public the horrifying messages Mia has received over the years, and she’s taking submissions from women who post using the the hashtag #pervmagnet. Mia says she dreams of turning the images into a coffee table book. She takes an admirably light-hearted approach to it, and you could look at some of the images and laugh thinking “oh creepy guys” but honestly, it gets incredibly dark and I think it’s this aspect of it she wants people to see.

It’s kind of acknowledged that women face unbelievable amounts of harassment online with a UN report estimating that a staggering 73% of women have faced some kind of online violence, but not nearly enough is done to combat it, and if posting visual documentation of the disgusting messages is what it takes to show how urgently action has to be taken I say let’s get on board.

What this Instagram highlights is not just gender-based online harassment but also racial harassment. It’s time to start a broader more intersectional conversation about online abuse towards women, because this shit is not okay. We salute Mia Matsumiya for using her online influence to help call it out.